Welch College negotiating sale of West End campus

Sep. 18, 2013

Welch College, a four-year Christian school formerly known as Free Will Baptist Bible College, is in negotiations that could lead to a sale of its 7-acre campus off West End Avenue. / File / The Tennessean

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The Tennessean

Students attend chapel at Welch College in Nashville. The listing price for the property is $12.5 million, and there are restrictions on what can be built there. / File / The Tennessean

What's next for Welch College?

The 71-year-old Welch College that’s owned and operated by the National Association of Free Will Baptists plans to build its new campus on 66 acres just off Vietnam Veterans Boulevard in Gallatin. That site was bought with money from sale of the 123 acres the college owned in Joelton.

Welch College, a four-year Christian school formerly known as Free Will Baptist Bible College, has sought to sell its property on West End Avenue in Nashville for more than seven years. / John Partipilo / File / The Tennessean

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Welch College is in negotiations that could lead to a sale of its 7-acre campus off West End Avenue and enable the school to finally relocate to land it bought in Gallatin.

The four-year Christian school, formerly known as Free Will Baptist Bible College, has sought to sell the property for more than seven years.

However, it has faced several challenges, including restrictions on what could be built by a new owner, and a required waiting period before a new owner could take possession of the site off of Interstate 440 at 3606 West End Ave. in the historic Richland-West End Neighborhood.

Brokers Rick French and Ellen Christianson, who have the $12.5 million listing, report strong interest, including from major Nashville educational institutions and residential developers.

“We are negotiating with one party right now,” Christianson said, declining to identify the prospect.

Matt Pinson, Welch’s president, said the college has a letter of intent, but said it has had others in the recent past that didn’t materialize into a contract. “It’s either going to have to be some kind of an educational institution or it just reverts back to residential, he said. “Our main thing is we want to stay within the zoning for the property.”

Neighbors report chatter about Aquinas College, another private college with its campus barely a mile away, being among institutions to express interest in the property. “They’ve come and looked at it multiple times,” said Frazer Buntin, president of the Richland-West End Neighborhood Association. “But every time we’ve heard from the rumor mill that they’ve made an offer or that there’s a contract, we go investigate and find out it’s not true.”

A call to Aquinas College President Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith wasn’t returned.

Over the years, French said the property has drawn inquiries from not only Aquinas, but universities such as Vanderbilt, Belmont and Lipscomb, and from private high schools, including Montgomery Bell Academy and University School of Nashville. “It’s not sold, it’s not under contract, it’s still for sale,” he said. “We had two offers this past week. None of them worked out. It’s very complicated. They don’t understand the waiting. They want to start building.”

Fred Kane, vice president of land services at real estate firm Cassidy Turley in Brentwood, said the buyer is probably going to be another school because of height and density restrictions in the neighborhood. He said an apartment project, for instance, would need a high-density zoning, but that it would likely face opposition from residents.

The nearly two-year wait — required as Welch College would need to lease back the buildings that it currently uses at the West End property while its planned new campus is built in Gallatin — is also probably a concern for any would-be developer, Kane said. “That’s pushing your crystal ball way out into the future,” he said.

Welch College operates at the West End site under a conditional use permit that would go away if the school moves, French said. If the property didn’t work well for another school, Buntin said neighbors want it to revert back to its original use for single-family homes. “Our biggest concern is obviously traffic and parking coming through there,” he added. “So if there was going to be another school there, we want to understand the volume of students and have a good working relationship the same way we do with Welch. They’ve been good neighbors.”

Residential wishes

Allen DeCuyper, a Realtor who has lived and worked in the Richland-West End neighborhood for more than two decades, said neighbors expect a residential component to any development at the campus. “A lot of people would like that because it’s a residential neighborhood,” he added.

“Single-family is more consistent with the traditional feel of the neighborhood,” agreed Jason Holleman, who represents the Richland-West End area in Metro Council and lives near Sylvan Park.

In early 2006, what was then Free Will Baptist said it had a “letter of intent” to sell the 9-acre West End site for roughly $16 million to developers that had planned a mix of fixer-upper homes, residential lots, new homes and condos. That deal, which was contingent on the college finding another Nashville area site for a new campus, selling the land it had owned in Joelton and closing the sale of the West End property, was never completed.

Since then, the school has sold off four lots, including the former home of its president, while marketing the larger site. The current owner of the former president’s home said he bought it with the understanding that the rest of the property would be redeveloped for single-family homes instead of another college.

Pinson, however, said the college offered no such guarantee. “Whatever the zoning is, we’re open to that,” he said. “Several companies over the years have contacted us about putting non-educational and non-residential things on West End. We don’t even talk to them because it’s not in the zoning.”

Getahn Ward covers growth and development for The Tennessean. He can be reached at 615-726-5968 or via email at gward@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Getahn.